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The murafu watches as the mage comes back to life. She seems slightly startled by the suddenness with which this occurs, but doesn't seem particularly scared by it. Maybe she's just too tired to care. Or maybe she has some other ideas.
At Falkor's question, she flicks an ear in his direction, then turns to face him, her weariness evident even to those unfamiliar with rattish expressions.
"I...can't remember what we did last time." she tells him again. "Maybe we need to do something else..."
She sounds quiet, calm. She doesn't seem particularly jittery or scared. But is this because she sees no reason to be scared, or simply because she's so exhausted right now that it's an effort to even speak?

Haynuus was more than willing to take orders from the halfling. He was really upset that Ameena (he didn't realise that it could be an Ameena look-alike) had betrayed them, but understood what their priorities were. He watched the wizard open the box and say a magic word (or was it three?) and suddenly all around froze once more. He grabbed the gnome with both arms to be sure, shifted to J7 and quickly jettisoned the evil wotsit through the blue haze.

Bzzzt!

There was one good thing that had happened though. Even Haynuus realised that the newly discovered VI altar could now be used to resurrect his friends. Historians will relate how the half-orc wanted to fight hoards of monsters from atop of one of these babies.

There was an odd flash of white as Haynuus ran past. It didn't seem to be anything to do with anything, and he ignored it for now in favour of throwing the frozen gnome into the blue haze.

Meanwhile, neither the scorpion nor Aurek of course made any move nor any sound, because the power of the blue blox had frozen them both along with the others in the room.

However, Falkor guessed that unless the group were very lucky, the blue box was probably masking the ending of the green box's enchantment. In only a few moment, not only Seeroc but his loathesom creatures would no doubt come back to horrible life. Could they maintain control of this situation, and indeed defeat the last grak-grak?


Ok, good news people - LB's back! Woohoo! However, as said, unless you are luckier that scoring 5 rounds out of the freeze life, you'll have grak-graks back aswell as Seeroc next turn.

Anyway, you guys all have high initiative, so feel free to go ahead and make some moves! Hopefully, by the time you read this, here will be the map:
http://www.dmjump.net/seeroomfight15.jpg

Aurek had been in what seemed like a form of daze for most of the battle thus far, dueling with "himself"... however, now he jumped to action. He hurled himself across the room to Farel's lifeless corpse... I can't have been "out of it" THAT long he frowned to himself, if HE can come back, then so can they!.

"We've got to get them onto this altar! I'm sorry for my previous 'dazed' state, but I'm kicking again now, so let's get to work."

OOC: Sorry for the lack of postage. I've been moving house, and there were some internet re-connection issues. However, I'm back now!

The paladin's twisted idea was genious!... But the half-orc just didn't understand it.

"Wait... The dead-undead ones or the alive-undead ones?" It was then he saw Aurek start to pick up the knight. "Ohhh the dead-dead ones!" For a moment there, he had assumed that the plan to destroy the undead was to throw them 'alive' onto the VI altar. Thereby giving them life, destoying the evil spell that bound them together...

Of course, throwing someone onto the altar would bring them back, but wouldn't necessarily give them good health and wealth.

So what to do? Their situation was still somewhat dire, in Haynuus' eyes. He didn't trust Ameena, Falkor was hiding a lot under that small cloak of his, the last GrakGrak was now starting to smell bad again and then there was the scorpion. He really ought to help the cleric onto the altar as well, but then there was the button to defend, which would undo all of their plans.

He took a deep breath and decided to act...

Falkor checked the black wand (1d20 = 5)he had picked up but little or nothing was coming back to him, he then remembered the wand the wizard had used on Haynuus, the wand Ameena had picked up..

"Ameena, the wand you picked up, can I have it? If i can use it I can possibly hold that last Grak Grak in place?" this would test the friendship between Ameena and the group, if she obliged then he would conceded that the Marafu was trying to help, if she pretested or held back then he would have little choice then to doubt her motives.

The murafu doesn't seem to notice Falkor for several moments. Then she blinks, looking at him. She seems slightly confused, as though disturbed from some deep reverie of thought.
"Wond?" she asks, in a puzzled voice. "Oh...yes...the magic stick...thing...yes..."
One forepaw starts to muddle around her pouches, feeling inside one, while her gaze becomes somehwat unfocused, not really looking at anything. The paw, meanwhile, pulls a potion halfway out of her pouch - one of those she'd found in Soorec's pile of things along with the green box.
Apparently realising that what she's holding isn't a wand, the murafu looks down at it and pushes the flask back into its pouch. Then she sets about with both paws, though without a vast increase in speed, and finally pulls the wand out of another pouch. Without another word, she hands it to Falkor, hardly waiting for him to grasp it before she releases her hold.
The one ear flicks in the direction of Haynuus as he attempts to move the bodies. She doesn't look round, however, and instead focuses once more on Falkor.
"Whatever you're going to do...it had better be quick." she says, in the same weary tone as before. "We'd better get out of here before...one of the others arrives. And more grak-graks. Soorec is alive again now - he's in control of them again. So they might start turning into us again. I...don't know if I can be of any help."
Her gaze flits toward the door she came in by.
"I said I'd come back..." she says quietly, almost in a whisper, and seemingly mostly to herself - it's a bit of a strain for Falkor to catch the words.
Then she turns away from him and descends form the altar, moving around it and heading back toward the door.

OOC - Map-wise, she's gone around the western side of the altar and is moving through the northern area of the room (so, roughly, up column E a couple of squares, then eastward through rows 4 and/or 5), heading straight for the door.

OOC - Oops, yes, it was Aurek who staretd moving. Well, Haynuus is still standing relatively close by (and I'm sure still smells the strongest, you know? ), and someone is making movement noises - consider it a character assumption .
Edit - Actually, shouldn't Aurek still be paralysed till after the next update?

Ameena had done as Falkor had requested and finally skittered away - she seemed 'not with it'. His intuition shouted that it was not the same Ameena he had left before, and the coincidence that she had appeared now of all times was a little too high. Still, just as Falkor had shown that he was not exactly the innocent trapped adventurer as Haynuus was, they were at least still alive... Oh dear. Not all.

He turned his attention to the imminent danger. Aurek was in the process of lifting the knight onto the altar, and he was so beat up that he could probably have thrown himself on there as well. Westian should be next, but Haynuus was damned if he was going to let the last grak-grak dictate the situation. Strangely, the enormous scorpion did not worry him so much as... It was not inherently evil as the things Brighteyes had created. His priorities lay in protecting the others as best he could to get their group back on their feet and flee! Dieing at the hands... at the claws of a scorpion was preferable to a death by that gnome.

He elected to bull rush the grak-grak, charging it into either the claws of the scorpion or better yet into the blue haze. The idea being that if it wanted to try and escape there would be TWO free attacks on it, and not just one. All this assumed that the gnome didn't magically walk through walls of course, or as Ameena had hinted, more undead were imminent. He put his head down, and rushed shoulder first into the danger area. (1d20+9=22, 1d20+4=16)

"Westian next, Aurek - protect the button Falkoooor!"

OOC - GR2 to G12 if it works, F13 if he's lucky!

While Ameena acquiesced to Falkor's request, she quickly moved off to around the altar temporarily out of sight of the rest of the group.

However, while Falkor possessed the potent white wand that had temporarily halted Haynuus, he instead looked to the black wand first as the unknown quantity. The blackness of the wand spoke of nothing except it actually being a very dark wood seen in strange light. Falkor tried to assess what it was, but all he could work out was that it still felt as if it possessed some power, and that the blackened hardwood usually spoke of offensive effects instead of defensive effects, Certainly, this was a wizard's wand, perhaps even a wizard of the same school as Falkor.

Sorry, even with your knowledge bonus, you only get over a DC10 success, which is common knowledge stuff. You can always try to use some of the scrolls or other people's insights later on to figure the wand out, but as it is the black wand will be very hard for you to spontaneously use right now.

Ameena uses a move action to find the wand, leaving her a move action (40 feet on all fours) to go to the door. Falkor simply takes the wand as a free action, Ameena did all the heavy lifting, and the check on the black wand is a standard action. So technically he has a move action left, so if he wants to start anywhere else next round, he can.


Aurek had been acting on autopilot, but apparently being frozen for a moment had allowed his mind to be focused once more. He quickly moved back to the area of the rest of the group, choosing to grab Farel as closest to the altar.

Closeby, there was another brief flash of white light, althoguh once again the party could imagine it was a trick of the eye.

LB, Aurek can get to Farel's side in one move, meaning he can grab Farel's body with his second move action. Therefore, he should be well positioned to put Farel on the altar next round.

While Aurek's choice of weho to grab was perhaps odd, he had maybe assumed Haynuus would already grab the cleric. However, Haynuus was actually using his mind. Which was to say, Haynuus was not thinking clearly, but instyead acting on years of experience with golbins and other nasties instead. And one thing you never did with goblins - you never turned your back on the little blighters.

Just as the grak-grak still free started to finally move, Haynuus enacted the plan he had come up with many moments ago. While so distractions had occurred, including raising a trapping the gnome mage, the basicas were still intact. Gte Westian and Farel - check. Put them out of harm's way - check. Go smash last grak-grak into haze- TO DO!

He charged at the thing, which even if it was not paralysed was still working out where its previous target ther paladin had gone.

There was no resistance - well, very little - and Haynuus had the satisfaction of thrusting the monstrocity into the blue haze. There was a 'bzzt' noise, and the thing came back to life safely unable to retaliate for the humiliation.

I forgot to ask before, when you bullrush why do you do a roll at +9 and one at +4? Are you hedging between an attack roll and a strength check>? It's just a strength check in that case. Anyway, a grak-grak with 0 strength and rolling a 4 doens't stand much of a chance, especially as you only needed to move it two squares! Poor ickle thing!

Haynuus looked to the scoorpion, but apparently the badly injured thing - once it could finally move a calw - did not wish anything to do with a powerful half-orc that had smashed a grak-grak across the room like a rag doll. It snarled generic threats that Falkor half-understood, but otherwise merely scuttled back into the end of the room-s corridor, snapping its claws threateningly and bleeding ichor in its wake.

And that, it seemed, was that. As the grak-graks came to their senses, they smashed the blue haze once in protest, but were docile - apparently because Seeroc, too, came back to his senses.

The gnome picked himself up, and dusted himself off. He laughed quite goodnaturedly, in his way, reminiscent of Brighteyes. He took a move forward and then was thrust backwards with a 'bzzt'. He seemed a little put out by that, again dusting himself off. However, with a resigned chuckle he found the humour in that too.

"Well now, this certainly is not how I imagined things would end up. Quite the reverse, infact. And yet, if this is what is required, then so be it. Now that you have the 'upper hand' as it were, now can we talk?"

However, just before he said that, everyone could hear the very quiet, insistance 'grak, grak' susuration that had durely given his foul fcreatures their nick-name form the soldiers. Once Seeroc spoke, the noise ceased, but the fact of it reminded the party that there were still more of the creatures aroudn than the three they had trapped.

Still, if Seeroc wished to speak, did this mean they had...won?


An interesting question indeed. Roll me a perception check, people! Nothing to do with Seeroc. If you lot want to check him out, then roll me a sense motive, but I will have to insist you give up a standard action of genuinly talking to him. not just trying to feel him out over your shoulder while you rush around everywhere else.

Otherwise, you have no enemies actively threatening you. I think I will insist that you guys still maintain some form of combat actions (so six second movements), but don't worry as much about initiative order, etc. Thoguh I will maintain the map.

Speaking of which:
http://www.dmjump.net/seeroomfight16.jpg


You've won - or at least won a temporary stalemate. Congratuations!

Anyway, the encounter isn't quite over yet (so no restoration of any powers), though you can certainly breath a sign of relief and figure out yourt next move. I meant to post a new thread summarising your current plot and knowledge, but think I will leave it for tomorrow now.

What will you do now you undoubtedly (*cough*) have the upper hand?

"Now that you've done what you're doing, Haynuus, can you possibly give me a hand lifting these two up onto this altar?" spoke Aurek, before attempting to lift Farel up there on his own.

He didn't even pay Ameena much notice... being 'frozen in time' or 'out of it' when she made her most obvious movements, he'd barely even noticed her much at all.
Falkor looked a little worse for wear, but mostly in a spellcasting sense (low mana).
Poor Westian and Farel had both been felled by these hidious things called "grak graks", now trapped behind the haze.
Then there was Haynuus and himself bleeding all over the floor... they DEFINATELY hadn't won anything yet.

Holy SH*T! What did I miss? thought Aurek, I looked away for a few moments, and you guys got whooped... poor Westian and Farel ... ... the sad thought passing quickly as he focused on reviving them both.

OOC: Money/Falkor, I honestly think it best to keep your crosshairs on the lone "grak grak" (where the scorpion was). You can throw fireballs one way through the haze, so we may be able to use that to our advantage. Wonder what would happen if Seeroc tried to throw one at you...

Falkor moved to block Ameena, he didn't really want her to leave so soon, she clearly knew more than she was telling (OOC: Starting at I5 this round). "Please stay and help, for now. We really could use your knowledge and help... Please" Falkor looked at Ameena, for a reaction, for anything that would hint that she would stay.

While he waited for the response, Falkor replaced the black wand with the white one, and examined it in great detail (1D20 = 11). Hopefully this time he would recall enough to make use of it's powers.

OOC:Perception Check: 5 (Suspect that white light is going to remain a mystery!)

The murafu continues to move toward the door, speaking in a soft voice to someone she can apparently see just beyond.
"Hello again." she calls. "I was just on my way back to you. I'm...not sure what we can do. I just...I decided it would be better if I came back now, since...well, I might not get another chance pretty soon..."
She twitches an ear toward Falkor, apparently now registering his words. She half-glances around, seemingly confused.
"Me, help?" she asks. "I'm not sure how. More grak-graks are coming. I can't seem to remember any more. Maybe, if you try...I mean, Soorec is a mage. This is a place of...mage...umm...things. You're a mage too, so maybe you can remember better. About what happened last time. I'm not sure...that we'll all survive it this time. This. With the grak-graks and everything. And if one of the other mages turns up...I don't know. Maybe they'll be shocked we're all alive. Or maybe that one meant to send us away and split us up. But we've all found each other again. Maybe he didn't mean for that to happen. I don't know. At least we can all be together. I think..."
She turns from him, refocusing her attention on the doorway, and continues to move slowly toward it on all-fours.

The half-orc could cry. He'd never had a problem with weeping or wailing in front of others but he felt that they'd all just gone through hell and his mind once more was shattered. Watching the scorpion's aggressive warnings yet obviously suffering from it's wounds saddened the half-orc once more. Even the grak-grak remains was once someone. Perhaps fortunately there was no respite, and he had no time for reflection or remorse.

Responding to the paladin he rushed over to drag the cleric by both of his ears unceremoniously across to the altar (E7), accidentally banging his skull inside his helmet when he got there. KLUNK! "One of us must stand next to that button at all times while we're here, Aurek." He felt happier that soon Westian will be around to patiently explain to the half-orc what was going on, just like he used to on their journey to Mount Aniseed or whatever this bitter place was called. OOC - I assume that he can't throw Westian on the altar in the same move?

He glanced over to the gnome. "Send your undead away, and we won't fireball you to death!" he blatantly lied... To be honest he'd like to try throwing a few of the more evil bottles into the area, but the scorpion needed to be let 'out' first by Haynuus' key.

"Haynuus, once you get Westian onto that altar, I'd suggest closing that door." pointing to the door that they'd come in through, "I don't think we need any more 'visitors' just yet."

Only as Falkor moved to block Ameena did he realise where she was going to. For some reason, Ardur had been stuck at the door, or had come back after running away a few minutes ago. It seemed obvious, of course, that if Ameena had come inside then she would have had to have passed Ardur. Of course, did that really explain how unfocused she was to everything?


I'll assume Falkor is close to Ameena, and that Ardur takes a couple of steps, so therefore he can probably notice the young squire's return. Because of that subtle adjustment in angles and the attention being drawn to the area, people right at the altar may well start seeing him too. It might also explain the low perception roll


Falkor idly twisted the white wand in his hand instead. He recognised the effect cast on Haynuus now he felt out the wand. Haynuus had been lucky, the half-orc had started to undergo petrification, having his whole body magically turned to stone. Just like the lightning glove, there seemed to be swirling pattern of force etched itno it. Falkor knew that he only needed to concentrate on the wand, and imagine he was casting the spell to invoke the magic of this wand. Falkor could also spot a few magical markings on the bottom that made the wand sound as if it possessed similar magics that were defensive. Still, that was usually the domain of priests. And Falkor couldn't quite work out what the magics might be.

Most irritatingly, the pertrification spell was an odd one, not much in use. Falkor couldn't recall it, or even recall if he had known it before. However, perhaps he could go about this in reverse - getting a feel for the item to learn the spell. To be able to turn opponents to stone - or at least temporarily immobilise them while they fought the effect off - could be a powerful find.


Heh, sorry you don't have the best of luck with some of these items - then again, they are designed to be useful later in the dungeon too, and plus I have to respect that someone - perhaps yourself - might invest in appraisal and more knowledge (arcana), hence some of the more powerful items have large DCs that require more levels, or the use of a team effort. Falkor can try again with Aurek's or Seeroc's scrolls, and perhaps getting an aid another from Haynuus describing the effect...


Aurek managed to get Farel ontop of the altar, after yelling for Haynuus to do the same. As before, the non-fighting smaller people seemed to be content to stand around chatting instead of dealing with the situation. Of course, after Farel was on the altar, Aurek may as well have joined them for all the effect that happened. Unlike Seeroc, Farel did not get ressurected with a flashy light show.

Aurek was vaguely aware from his religeous background that these altars were powerful items. Perhaps they required something to activate them? Or perhaps the problem was not the altar...


Heh, sorry, it couldn't be that easy. As the currently living priest-like character, feel free to figure out a way to get new lives into those old bones! Tell me what checks you want to make, or what actions you'll do. Remember, you aren't slavishly tied to the 6 second combat round anymore if you have a plan that might take longer.



The still admittedly young half-orc luckily did not have much time to reflect on mortality and senseless violence. Westian's other charge - how did that work - had suggested a brilliant course of action - and Haynuus moved quickly to comply, hoping someone would guard the switch. Of course, another thing that could cause Haynuus to cry occurred - or rather didn't orrur - when the half orc managed to hustle Westian onto the altar table. The body remained sadly inert.


Due to the slight wiggle room with the combat round, I'll say Haynuus can indeed grab Westian and slam him onto the altar. Same as with Aurek though - Haynuus might need to figure out some additional means to get the two back to life.


At least one of Haynuus's ideas worked. Moving away seemed to give the scoprion some courage and left it free. Of course, the thing hadn't really demonstrated its raw speed before. As it scuttled like lightning across the floor, snapping away, it was suddenly a debateable idea to allow the scorpion some relief. Luckily, for now it seems to be twisting between snapping at the grak-grak in the south cell, and the main body of Seeroc and the grak-graks.

Except, of course, the grak-graks were no longer grak-graks. Two now resembled Haynuus, looking at the scuttling figure curiously. The third looked like Aurek, again looking with curiosity at the actions of the figures around the altar.

"Hmm," said Seeroc, apparently contemplating Haynuus's comment. "Certainly in all the confusion I can understand your own. What makes you think I am concerned with my own health when I have such loyal children, and such...concerned...acquantences worried over my health?" The gnome shrugged. "Perhaps we can discuss this the other way around. What is it you want, that you wish my children to be absent? Hmm?"


So there we go, you guys need to do something to get Farel and Westian back, Ameena is talking to Ardur, you aren't instanty getting any more powerful weapons, but luckily Seeroc doesn't seem overly concerned with threateneing you...for now.

Map currently looks like this:
http://www.dmjump.net/seeroomfight17.jpg

Hmm, seems an extra hour at work and a little bit of house tidying has put me behind on filling in the plot so far. You guys remember what you actually wanted to do passed Seeroc's room? Now might be a time to start trying to do it

Edit: Ah, I see LB snuck in an extra little comment. Not bad advice at all, although you have a hovering squaire to deal with in that case ... try not to spook him

And finally...knew I missed something....

Ardur looked a little shaken as he came out of the effect of Falkor's freezing magic, but seemed to take in Ameena's words.

"The noise, I could hear the noises. I didn't want to be alone anymore. Where's Sir Farel?"

Done this time!

At Ardur's mention of not wanting to be alone, the murafu's whiskers twitch. The meaning of this gesture is presumably one of agreement, considering the nature of murafu. She moves closer to him and answers his question about Farel.
"Umm...I'm not sure." she says. "I haven't found everyone yet. It's been...rather busy in here. I haven't even had a chance to sniff out the room. I haven't seen Serfarrel yet, or Westian. Just Falkor and Haynuus. And umm...some grak-graks. And Soorec."
She glances briefly past Ardur, down the corridor beyond him, then looks back at him.
"There are more of them coming, aren't there?" she asks in a weary tone. She stands upright, an act which appears to require a fair amount of effort at this time, so that she can now look at his face more easily. She continues to move toward him, but stops before she reaches him, leaving a short gap between the two of them.

OOC - She's now...hmn...probably about the eastern edge of N4.

Nothing was happening, the Mage just came back to life - Westian was not. Falkor couldn't understand it, the Mage had nothing on him (Falkor had taken it all beforehand) and he was sure no-one had said any words to bring him back... Unless the Rat had whispered something, but he was sure this wasn't so.

"Haynuus, when you were frozen in place by the Mage, what did it feel like? Can you describe it" Falkor hoped this would help in his learnings of the White wand... but first and foremost, back to the Alter... He examined the alter carefully (1d20=17).. he thought it was making sense of it all, but...

"Oh he shouted the word Permineralisation! at me legs then I found that I couldn't move my pegs. They felt cold and heavy as granite." he replied to his new half-pinted hero. "Why doesn't this thing work now, then?" he continued. He wanted his friends back, and the scorpion was looking menacing once more. "One at a time is it?..."

It was his turn to reply to Aurek and chased around the back of the table to arrive at the indentation in the wall (N4) to place his gem. To be honest, it was the perfect time to take some stuff out of his mouth. The empty bottle went in his backpack, just like Eelton Jon[*] his tongue withdrew from public view, and the gem on a rope went around his neck. "Shift your butt little Farel-friend. Come in, out of the door way." and motioned that he was about to activate the mechanism.

It was then he wondered if those grak-grak's would start choking him again now that they couldn't see him. It would be fascinating, as Brighteyes would say. At that point he nearly barged into the Murafu.

"Oh come on Ameena, get that magic altar working again will you - this time for our team." She looked a little battle weary like the half-orc. Unlike Haynuus however, he'd been smacking little gnome wizards in the face.

He hovered the gem over the hole, ready to trap them all inside, and probably let the screamer on the other side of the room out. These are sad times!

Now then... What were they here for again?

[*] A goblin two-handed-sword swallower. Very good in live performances, but never appeared on the stage for long these days, due to a broken sphincter.

"I don't know those names," says Ardur, shaking his head. He is, even in the dimmer light around the corner, obviously pale and shaking. His clothing still smells of burning, although he himself is not completely burned due to the magic of the swiftly burning fireball spell.

Ardur does nod at the mention of more grak-graks coming, and seems torn when Ameena walks forwards, as if wishing to move backwards but not sure if he should. Especially when Haynuus then blusters forwards aswell.

However, Haynuus's antics rearranging himself, and his good natured unself conscious attitide seem to startle and confuse the young man. Trying to hug the other wall, he nevertheless walks forwards into the room, enough that the door would not trap him when it fell.

Haynuus's use of the gem then sealed the door shut.


Assuming this would be the next action for Haynuus if Ardur moved it - so gave it to you for free If not, then I can undo it, of course.

I'm more interested in the fact that Haynuus has pointed out someone from the party is on the altar...I wonder what will happen now the murafu has no excuse for not realising some of the group are down...


Vi altars were really the domain of priests, as they were mostly powerful magics created by High Lords and powerful priestly orders. However, it was still harnessed magic, and Falkor knew some important things.

He always understood that priests made petitions when they tried to ressurect people, and it was not always guaranteed. And he also recalled the stories of the champions in Lord Chaos's dungeon. He was sure they always came back when they placed a comrade's bones on the VI altar. Surely priests and the comrades of the fallen champions of the Grey Lord could only have sent positive thoughts to these altars, instead of invoking high magic.

So, was there something special about the altars here, or something special about their 'set up'. Or was it something to do with the ressurrectee themselves? Were the champions driven to continue, just like Seeroc obviously wished to live, but normal people - and perhaps Westian and Farel - did not feel drawn to come back to the world they left?

The odd flashes Falkor had perhaps put off thinking them tricks of the light - could those be the spirits of the fallen attempting to leave? Falkor had a small flash of memory, something he imagined he saw when he fell in the teleporter room earlier this day. White light has surrounded the dead sergeant Arbrut when Falkor, too, had fallen...


Good roll - I did a combined dungeoneering and arcana. Religeon would be the best knowledge, but you rolled good and have good knowledge, so feel free to ask for some clarifications or some confirmations.


Hearing Haynuus's description indeed confirmed it was the petrification spell. Hmm, Seeroc had said a word? Was it the command word, or just the way he channelled his will? Still, stone would imply a YA component. It still seemed too illusive, not something Falkor felt he knew. Perhaps if he could exactly sit and speak to Haynuus more once this was over, there might be subtle aspects that would speak to the other runes.

Or, of course, he could find a living target and simply try a variety of earth-based rune incantations to see if anything felt right...


Sorry, the wand investigation might require some deeper research and chat than can be accomplished right now. Still, it's definitely the right track, so you might be able to master the thing or even learn a new spell sooner or later! That's in addition to the ones I promised you when you could ransack this room


AS the rest of the group bustled around, Seeroc seems to shrug to his own creatures, and searched around his pockets. Again a little annoyed they contained nothing, he gestured for one of his creatures - the Haynuus replica, as it happened - to slightly extend a fingernail to allow him to cut a small thread of his clothing.

He quickly tied it into a knot, and then with the loop between both his hands, started playing the childhood game of cat's cradle, sitting down on the floor. While the sight of 'Haynuus' bending over to occasionally take the compled shape from him may have been funny, Hyanuus's duplicate did not do this.

Just like the rest of his two fellow disguised grak-graks, he pointed directly at Seeroc. Whistling to himself, Seeroc ignored this odd behaviour and the scorpion that still clashed its claws at the gnome, and carried on creating more and more complex shapes with the loops thread.


Deep in the opposite corner of the room, where the door was, nothing happened. No door opened as the other door beside Ameena, Ardur and Haynuus shut. However, if someone were standing close, and had really been listening - they might have heard a quiet fungal rustling.


Lol, there we go, think that updates for the current crop of actions. I'll put up the map then!
http://www.dmjump.net/seeroomfight18.jpg

At Ardur's comment regarding the fact that he doesn't recognise the names she's mentioned, the murafu gives him a slightly confused look and tilts her head to one side.
"You...don't remember us?" she asks. "Not any of us? I remember that you...didn't really talk to us much, but I thought you might...hmm...that seems strange. But how come you've...I mean...hmm...maybe one of the others found you and Serfarrel while we were all separated. Or something. We'll need to..."
At this point she is interrupted by the approach of Haynuus, as the half-orc lumbers over and, in his own unique way, politely requests that Ardur move himself out of the way of the door. His query, aimed at the murafu, only seems to enhance her confusion.
"What do you m..." she begins, then stops, apparently realising the implications of what the half-orc is asking.
Despite standing upright and clearly the worse for wear, she manages to spin around quite quickly. She looks toward the altar but then sees Aurek standing there, with Falkor. She stares at him with an expression of complete bafflement, though her gaze occasionally flits past him, toward the contents of the altar.
"What...?" she asks nervously, of no-one in particular.

Thinking it of the "holy domain", Aurek decided to see what he can figure out about this "resurrection altar" (1d20 = 16).
What the hell's going on? Why didn't they come back to life? he wondered, then moved around the altar, to look at the VI symbol on the side (1d20 = 19).
Vague memories seemed to flash before him, if only for a moment...

OOC: Thought I'd plot out 2 actions here, just use my second action for the next 'round' if you feel it's too complex. I really want to get these two back up and kicking ASAP.

I'll update for Aurek alone, just since it might help!

While these Altars of Rebirth were legendary, and were tools fo the High Lords (reputedly), they were also priestly artifacts. The High Lords did not just do things for the faithful, the faithful always had to earn their rewards.

Ignoring Seeroc's ressurection, which was strange and not possible, what should work would be imploring both the High Lords directly aswell as those fallen to come back. After all, Aurek had been a faithful tool of his god, surely, as had Westian as a cleric. And as a knight, would Farel not have earned respect?

Tales of such areas of rebirth, or even spontaneous restorations, always features priests directly expounding the virtue of both themselves and the one this wished to ressurect. It always seemed that those who valued the fallen were an integral part - as if the High Lords only granted life to those who proved they wished to return.

The symbol of Vi represented life. There seemed to be no early or magical mechanism attached to the rune, but then Aurek felt that was not the point. Larethian was Aurek's and Westian's patron. However, he did not usually claim VI as a favoured aspect of runes, instead relating to EW as the representation of what people and civilisation could achieve.

VI was favoured primarily by Posseod the unknowable, dweller on the shores and bringer of the ocean's bounty, Karna of time and seasons, and Cristop of travel and the river. Adventures and healers tended to favour Cristop simply because of his links to travel, and because of his ethos of always helping where needed as you roam.

There we go. So either you can all have a love in trying to petition HIgh Lords, or Aurek can work the religeous angle while Flakor tries to work the mechanical angle of the Altar to get it to work.

Good luck!